The Return of the Twin Engines

The Return of the Twin Engines

Not too long ago, we tested ATI's latest flagship GPU, the HD 4870 512MB GDDR5, and remarked that "the best has yet to come". Well, "the best" has finally arrived in our labs. That's right folks; we're talking about the R700, otherwise known as the HD 4870 X2 that combines dual RV770 GPUs on one PCB.

If you haven't already noticed, ATI is pursuing a different strategy when it comes to graphics for the enthusiast market. Similar to Intel, who is pursuing multi-core processors for the future, ATI is focusing their energies on multi-GPU graphics cards. The main advantage of doing this is that it cuts development costs and time, because they no longer have to develop different GPUs of different market segments. Instead, now all ATI has to do is concentrate on a really solid mid-range GPU, and then combine two of them to form a high-end card. The dual-GPU HD 4870 X2, then, is the fruition of ATI's new strategy and efforts (just like they had done earlier with the Radeon HD 3870 X2). Judging from our evaluation of the HD 4870 and HD 4850 series, this strategy seems to be paying dividends.

For the uninitiated, there are several advantages to sticking two GPU cores onto a single card. First of all, you save an expansion slot (or two actually), and secondly, it is also far easier to install. More importantly, this card will not require you to have a motherboard that is CrossFire compatible. But for those who do have a CrossFire friendly motherboard and have enough dough to spare, quad-CrossFire beckons with a pair of Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics cards!

ATI tells us that the HD 4870 X2 is meant to be a more powerful solution than NVIDIA's current flagship, the single-GPU GTX 280. So let's see how it stacks up, shall we?